FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2015

2015 has been an interesting year of reading for me, to say the least. I read a total of 70 books and I wanted to share with you my favourite 10-ish books that I read in 2015. This list is not in any particular order, so without further ado, let's move on to my favourite books of 2015. Starting out with a non-fiction book, we have The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell. This is basically a book about bookshops around the world. This book features an array of beautiful, fascinating and extremely unique bookshops. Included are also some photographs of some of the bookshops mentioned. And scattered throughout the mix are some really interesting bookish facts and interviews with authors. This was just such a satisfying read. It was everything that I could have wanted. After reading this book, I just wanted to travel the world and experience some of the incredible bookshops that there are out there. If you're interested in more of my thoughts, I did a full review of this book, which I will have linked down below. Next is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. This is a story based off of true events. It follows a woman in the 1800s and she's the last woman condemned to death in Iceland. So it follows her and her days leading up to her execution, as well as flicking back in time to the events that occurred leading up to the crime she committed. I think that the fact that this is based off of a true story made it even more so, but it was just such a haunting book and it was absolutely beautiful. I loved the writing. I was just so drawn to so many of the characters and the story itself. I just, I was blown away. It was beautiful. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. This follows a young boy, 9 year old Oscar. His father had died during 9-11 and he comes across this key that he finds in amongst his father's things. And he goes on a bit of an adventure trying to find what this key unlocks and he meets some really interesting people along the way. I loved the narration. We see this story from Oscar's point of view and it was a very unique style of narration with his voice. I also like that there are some images throughout the book as well. And the formatting of some of the pages really added to the power of the story. Things like this just really, really intrigue me. Playing with words on the page and their positioning. It was just such a beautiful story. I also have The Martian by Andy Weir. This is a book that I listened to on audiobook and I'm so glad that I did. The audiobook is absolutely amazing but I can definitely see myself re-reading the physical book at some point in the future because I love this so much. Mark Watney is an astronaut. He's on a mission to Mars and a freak storm hits. So basically him and his crew have to evacuate Mars immediately but something happens and Mark is left on Mars. His crew thought that he had died but he miraculously survived. And now he's alone on a planet entirely by himself with not much there to help him survive. This book was surprisingly funny. I was not expecting to find myself laughing out loud several times while listening to it. Despite the fact that Mark is in such a grim and dire situation, he is still able to retain a sense of humour. This was just such a fascinating read as well. There is a lot of information going into some of the science behind things but the way in which a lot of this information was relayed, it wasn't info-dumpy and it wasn't really bogging you down with a lot of information that you didn't understand. That's not to say that I didn't always understand what was happening but the way in which Mark described a lot of the things, I felt like I was starting to understand the processes and what was happening. So it really was fascinating and just so enjoyable. I loved this story so much. This book was just executed so well. I was hooked from the get-go. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. This is a contemporary novel that follows two characters, Violet and Finch. The two meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school. They kind of save each other in that moment. I also just want to add a trigger warning for abuse, depression and suicide. This book had a powerful hold on me. I read it in just a couple of sittings. The start of it I was really enjoying. I was liking getting to know the characters and seeing them interacting with each other and developing this relationship. And it just slowly, slowly sucked me into the story. This book was beautiful. I absolutely loved it. And I did do a spoiler-free review as well, so if you'd like to know a little more, I will link that down below. Wall Breakout by Brandon Sanderson. This follows a series of characters in a universe that has biochromatic magic. This kind of magic uses the essence of breath, which everybody is born with, and it draws upon colour for power, which is super intriguing. Never come across a magic system like this one. And the characters themselves were just so fascinating. We follow two sisters who are princesses and one of them is going to marry the God King. We also follow a hilarious lesser God and this very mysterious character who owns a sword that literally has a mind of its own. This was absolutely incredible. I love the complexity of the world. I really enjoyed learning about the political systems and the religion. I loved watching the characters grow and getting to know them more. Amazing! And I have to read more of Brandon Sanderson's books. I do have a full spoiler-free review of this book scheduled. It will be posted in January, so look forward to that where I kind of go into a little more detail about my thoughts. Next is Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas. In 2015, I reread Throne of Glass and continued to read the rest of this series. And this one was by far my favourite. I would like to make an honourable mention to The Assassin's Blade because there are a couple of short stories in there that were incredible. I absolutely loved. Because this is a sequel, I'm not going to go into the synopsis of this one because that will spoil things majorly for you guys if you haven't read them. But Throne of Glass follows Selina Sardothien, who is Adeline's assassin. She is caught and now a prisoner in the mines, but she is approached with an offer. If she participates in the king's contest and wins, she will become the king's personal assassin, and after a few years of service, her freedom. The series as a whole is absolutely incredible. The first one I enjoyed, but each book for me has just been getting progressively better and better. And I'm just loving the direction which this series is taking as well. The differences between Throne of Glass and Queen of Shadows are massive. There is so much that we learn, so much of the world, and what is really truly happening is uncovered by Queen of Shadows, and I'm loving every minute of it. I just loved how much action we had in this book in particular. I really enjoyed a lot of the character development as well. Some of the characters I'm starting to hate, not going to lie, but there are some others that I've grown to love, which was quite surprising considering how they were when we first met them. And there is one particular scene that I've been anticipating since I read The Assassin's Blade. It happened in Queen of Shadows, and it was so beautifully satisfying. Now moving on to a book that I read twice this year, and that is Illuminae by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I received an ARC of this copy at the beginning of the year, and I read it in February, and then I had to wait to share my thoughts with you guys. That was very difficult. And then the book came out, and I heard about the audiobook, which had a cast of 20 voice actors, and they just went full out with the sound effects and everything. So I listened to the audiobook of this one towards the end of the year as well. This story follows Katie and Ezra, and one morning, they break up. But not a few hours later, their planet is invaded by a megacorporation, things are going down, they manage to escape aboard a fleet of ships, add to that a virus that sends people into a murderous rage, as well as an insane artificial intelligence, and you have an insanely action-filled book with lots of drama. But not only that, this is one of the most interesting books that I've ever read. It is basically a dossier of instant messages, emails, transcripts of camera surveillance footage, as well as the mind of an artificial intelligence. This was the most unique book I've ever read. I absolutely flew through the book. It is a very chunky book, but I read it in a couple of sittings. And the fact that I read this twice this year speaks a lot for my love of this book. I also did a spoiler-free review of this book as well, which I'll link down below. The first is Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. This is a series of five shorter stories that all have to do with the woods in some way. They're eerie, and the images alongside this made for a chilling experience. I mean, look at this. Look at this. It's creepy, but I really love the style of the illustrations, and each of the stories I absolutely adored, despite being creeped out by them. It was such an enjoyable read, and definitely a book that I would recommend for reading around the Halloween time of year. It's that kind of book. And the last books that I have to talk about are two books from a manga series. I'm just counting these as one. And these are volumes three and four of The Black Editions of Death Note by Tsugumi Oba. Technically, these are volumes five, six, seven, and eight. The Black Editions of Blind Ups. But these were definitely my favourite of the entire series. I love the series as a whole. It is so good. So twisted. Oh my gosh, the characters. Fascinating. Getting into their heads was an interesting experience. But these two books especially stood out to me the most. So Death Note starts out with Light Yagami. He's very intelligent, he's a straight A student, and he comes across this notebook that seemingly falls from the sky. So he picks it up and opens it to find a set of rules, and he learns that it is a Death Note. Basically, if you write someone's name in the notebook, they die. You're able to specify how they die, but if you don't do any details on that matter, they just die of a heart attack. So this follows Light Yagami as he unleashes the power of the notebook. People out in the world start to pick up on the fact that there's someone holding some strange powers. They're able to kill people off without even touching them or being anywhere near them. This series was truly amazing. I loved the way in which things were revealed to us as readers. I've also started watching the anime. I have yet to finish it as of yet, which I'm a little disappointed in myself about. I haven't watched any of it in several months. I will remedy that and I will do a review of the anime and the manga with my boyfriend at some point. Hopefully in 2016. So those are my favourite books of 2015. The 10-ish, basically 11 books that stood out to me the most. I would love to know what your favourite book of 2015 was. I know that's a really tough question, so if you have to mention a few, go ahead. But I would love to hear about some of the amazing books that you read throughout the year. So that is all that I have for this video. Thank you guys so so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this and I will see you very soon.